Dream in the cocoon
by Alexie Barnaby
Summary: Aaron realized he could be better than a simple bug collector. And challenging the pokèmon league could be the decisive step to completely improve his life.


**Author's note: **Hope it didn't turn out to be too boring, I wanted to write this so far, since Aaron's one of my favorite character but I had never written anything about him.

**Disclaimers: **I don't own pokèmon

* * *

Indigo Plateau. For most of the trainers, entering in is just a dream, something you can just watch in movies where the Elite four are represented as sexy and horny guys and girls, and Lance as a poor old man, which is often beaten by a super attracting trainer that defeats him by setting his Lugia on the battlefield.

As you may know, reality is far different, and no one has been challenging the Elite Four for a quite long while.

If you want to count it in numbers, well, here it is: of fifty trainers who start their adventure, ten give it up as soon as they find a good job in places like a pokèmon ceter, the Safari Zone or the Battle Tower; another fifteen are still stuck in the first four gyms, another five give up when they realize Pryce's not an idiot old man who can't even move his legs, five give up after conquesting the eighth badge, five go to challenge the Elite Four, three of them are stopped by Will, and Koga takes care of the other two.

That was why Aaron checked is badge case two times before passing through the pokèmon center. He was a pretty talented trainer and succeeded to be in the five who were _la crème de la crème_ of trainers. But he aimed high: he really wanted to become the new pokèmon champion.

Aaron had always been a smart kid, he made a false copy of his I.D. to start training pokèmon at the age of nine instead of the legal ten years old. He travelled throughout the most different regions.

His first aim was to become a great bug collector, and he was succeeding it. This idea came out as soon as he started his journey, having Scyther as a starter, and being good friend with another bug maniac, certain Bugsy, it was normal his passion could only increase.

Later Bugsy applied to become a Gym Leader and Aaron left for Sinnoh, were he caught his Skorupi and Combee, just to move to Hoenn and catch two Wrumple.

He was doing well and owned several kind of bug pokèmon, what he didn't realize was how strong they got.

Not that he didn't like being a bug collector anymore, but after he defeated Bugsy, his brain traced a new path for him. His long time friend had suggested him to go forward and challenge the Elite Four, to end his path through the gym leaders, not just challenging some of them randomly in each region just to train and make his pokèmon evolve.

Reflecting on it, Aaron thought that the idea wasn't bad at all, in the end, it would have sounded great to be champion instead of the invincible Lance.

He gathered all the badges really easily, and now it was time to put his abilities under test.

So now here he was, pokèball in hands, a bunch of medicines and similar, showing all his prizes to the League Inspectors, who let him go freely inside.

He walked through a metal corridor to find himself in a room that seemed so surreal. There were cubes of sea green light floating around and the whole place was enlightened in violet light.

He passed the door and heard it slam closed. Here it is, now there was no way to run back out.

On the opposite side of the room, there was a boy, he looked almost too young to be an Elite Four, even though he must have been something like two years older than Aaron. They were the same height, and they should have weighted the same as well, just that Will showed his body less, with a suit that remembered some '800 pianist. He had a black mask on his face, there were voices on the reason that pushed him to do so, but Aaron didn't care, and anyway the mask was almost useless as the lilac hair fell over his eyes. He smiled widening his arms "Welcome to the pokèmon league, Aaron. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Will. I have trained all around the world making my psychic pokèmon powerful. And at last I've been accepted into the Elite Four. I can only keep getting better. Losing is not an option!"

Aaron tilted his head on one side "Yes…nice to meet you too, Will"

The psychic master seemed so sure about his victory, well, how to get him wrong, he was one of the strongest trainers on the planet.

The referee entered pulling the green flag up, so the match started.

Will sent out Slowbro for first, this didn't worry Aaron too much. He called his Yanmega out, the speed would have played in his favor. And so it was: Slowbro was commanded to use _amnesia_, but in the while where the pokèmon were positioning to gather all his power, Yanmega's powerful _crunch_ sent the opponent to the floor, fainted.

The referee lifted the yellow flag towards a still half-shocked Will

"Well, you defeated my first pokèmon, but I have still four to go! The road is longer than you think!"

"Less talking more acting monsieur Will, I'm waiting for your following choice"

And without thinking about it, Aaron sent Heracross out, Will answered by letting Jinx in the arena. This could be an actually dangerous match. None of his pokèmon was resistant to the ice type.

Will smirked, ordering Jinx to use _psybeam_, said pokèmon retreated back, holding its hands together, in the middle of them, what seemed a sphere of violet light was forming.

"What do you think you can do? Your pokèmon is bug and fighting! Didn't you know fighting pokèmon are weak against the psychic type and that the bug is weak to ice? Sorry if I say you but I think you need to be more informed!" laughed Will.

Aaron, on the other side smirked, he pulled out and X-Speed and used it on his Heracross "Heracross, use detect, now!" Jynx's psybeam was sent, but the bug pokèmon avoided it, so that the attack went lost in the arena "You should try to think before you speak Will, Ice is weak to fire, am I wrong? Heracross, use firepunch!" the bug kind pokèmon flew directly into Jynx, making the enemy fall on the floor, it seemed able to stood up, but unluckily, it got burned. Another point for Aaron.

And now Will was starting to fume, no one had never defeated his pokèmon so easily, yes he lost before, but no one had it easy with him. This guy was different, he had some fire in his spirit just very few people had.

Will waited for the referee to give the okay and sent his Exeggutor into the battlefield, Aaron answered with Beautilfly, and now Will was sweating bullets, not only the enemy was far faster than Exeggutor, but it had an advantage on it too!

"Fast, Exeggutor, use _psychic_"

Needless to say, Beautyfly and its _Silver Wind_ hit the aim before the palm like pokèmon could even look up.

Another yellow flag for the psychic Elite Four "Dammit! It's not possible!" muttered Will under his teeth "I'm left with two pokèmon you know, but don't worry, I saved the best for last"

Aaron chuckled "How fun, seems we had the same idea!"

Actually Will had two aces in the hole, he could still hope for a good recovery. Before he could even chose the pokèmon, Heracross was sent out again "You look so persistent, but this time I won't be fooled by your weakness-resistance tricks!" he affirmed proudly before sending his Xatu out.

Aaron shook his head "And you're the one to lecture me? Heracross, use Rock Tomb!"

"Not this time my darling! Xatu, use Fly!" the bird like pokèmon flew up into the arena "What about it now? Your precious fire punch can't be used against a pokèmon in the middle of fly!" Will seemed very proud of his action, Aaron backed away and looked at Heracross "Use Stealth Rock!"

The bug pokèmon jumped in the middle of the arena, lifting rocks from the already damaged ground, the stones went directly hit against the poor Xatu. Another match won by Aaron.

It was question of moments for Will, it was the first time someone had put him with his back against the wall like this, he just underrated his opponent, seeing him looking like one of the several he fought. The difference was that in the past, the few who passed him usually did it by luck, because both of them were left with just one pokèmon, but now he still had five pokèmon to defeat, and he knew just three of them. He tried to calm down

"_That's right Will, what else could he have in his poket? A Beedrill? A Butterfree? A Ninjask? I need to succeed it, my last pokèmon will allow me to"_

He thought panicking "W..well, seems that you are determined to win, but I'm sure you will think over it again when you'll see _its_ power!" with that, the Elite Four threw a Love Ball in the air. The pink object rotated two times before landing and let out what was probably the most graceful and beautiful looking pokèmon in his team. Gardevoir made its entrance "There's no way at all you can defeat me until Gardevoir's with me!"

Aaron chuckled on the back of his throat "Are you really sure of it?" he took a step forward, calling Heracross back and putting the little white and red sphere back in his pack, he took out a Great ball and threw it into the air as well as his opponent just did. This last vision was everything but assuring to the poor Will, a giant scorpion like pokèmon came out "W…wait! You own a Drapion?"

"Seems so, where were we now?"

The psychic master swallowed the bitter view, trying his hardest not to freak out and panic "Gardevoir, use _psyshock_!" his jaw literally dropped when the attack neutralized by itself without touching the enemy a little "T…that's not possible! At all!"

"Oh, didn't you know Drapion's immune to psychic moves?" he then looked at his mammoth monster "Time to close this joke: Drapion, use _night slash_!"

The pokèmon lifted his pincers up, sending two dark half-circle towards Gardevoir

"Come on, avoid it and use Ice pun-! No dammit!" before he could even finish, Gardevoir laid motionless on the ground.

"I..I can't…believe it!"

Aaron retreated his pokèmon back. Bugsy was right, he couldn't be difficult for a person like him to gain the champion's title. "Believe it dude, I'm real!" joked Aaron who walked forward to shake hands with him.

"I'm always hoping to have a rematch with you, maybe to challenge your other pokèmon, I'm curious to see your Grumpig"

"There would be no problem, next time I'm gonna be prepared better!" exclaimed Will, anyway he was still smiling, despite the defeat, he was glad someone good finally sprang up from a region like Jotho.

"Even though I was defeated, I won't change my curse. I will continue battling until I stand above all Trainers! Now move on and experience the true ferocity of the Elite Four!"

The bug trainer blinked, kneeling down to give some fresh water to his pokèmon "..What? are they really so far stronger than you?"

"Maybe Karen, but don't worry too much about her, according to your battle style, you have good chances to challenge the champion"

"I came all the way here to defeat him"

Will laughed "For how many trust I can put into you, the asexual nazi dragon tamer's merciless, you'll need to fight at your best to defeat and obtain some good result from him"

Aaron covered his mouth, still smiling "Have you just called Lance a _nazi_?"

"_Asexual nazi_" pointed out Will holding his index finger up

"That's funny, I always called him a _tight-ass dictator_"

Will stood up following him to Koga's room entrance "Just don't say it aloud when he's present" the psychic master suggested "I'll keep it on my mind!"

*xXxXx*

Koga's room was so far different from Will's one. It had trees, and tall grass, Aaron felt at home in that moment, it was the ground he had been training for all his life long, if he wasn't advantaged by the element, he could play with the environment.

The strange was that Koga was nowhere in sight, Aaron peeked inside "H…hello? Is there anybody here?"

A soft noise of leaves and the ninja Elite four jumped in front of the poor Aaron, who fell on his butt.

"Fwahahahaha! I am Koga of the Elite four. I live in shadows—a ninja! My intricate style will confound and destroy you! Confusion, sleep, poison…prepare to be the victim of my sinister techniques! Fwaahahaha!" at this second laugh, the poor bug master backed away

"_For now, I'm just victim of your bad breath!" _

"Pokèmon are not merely about brute force-you shall see soon enough!"

The Elite was something like overexcited to be able to pronounce his speech, Aaron just waited for it to end with arms crossed over his chest.

The fight with Koga took Aaron more energies than the one with Will, in fact, there was a point where his Drapion and Koga's Muk were facing each other.

Koga had already defeated his Beautifly and Heracross wasn't in his best estate either. Even if the other three pokèmon were still in good health, he still had to remember that Koga hadn't let his Toxicroack out yet.

Muk's defense was at almost his maximum estate, thanks to the insistent use of _acid armor. _Aaron searched in his bag for something useful, finally he found an x-attack and gave it to Drapion, who seemed to gain strength at once. "Drapion, use _Ice Fang_!" the scorpion like pokemon's fangs became cold as he attacked its jelly shaped foe "Muk, use _toxic_!"

"Don't give up, Drapion! It's almost done!"

With one last effort, but being badly poisoned, Drapion succeeded to defeat the aggressive Muk.

Koga retreated the poison pokèmon back "One pokèmon left? Haha I've been counting on this from the very beginning!"

With that he sent his Toxicroak out which screeched in the air, landing heavily on the battlefield.

"Well, well, well. I guess it's time to let out someone I've never given the pleasure to compete yet"

With that, Vespiquen appeared from the pokèball he launched. The pokèmon flew high proudly, like it wanted to show its full form and magnificent appearance

Koga had already planned, what in his mind was a _killer strategy_. He recently taught his Toxicroak how to use the move _hyper beam_, he knew Vespiquen was still too fast and could easily avoid it, so he had to take a different path.

"Toxicroak, use _Fake out_"

The frog like pokèmon moved so fast that Vespiquen found itself being hit by the foe's claws, it fell on the ground, trembling and disoriented.

Spotting the increasing amount of light forming in his opponent's pokemon mouth, Aaron panicked "Vespiquen, get away from there! Move! That's an _hyper beam!_"

But the pokèmon seemed not to respond. Meanwhile, Koga had already launched his fellow the order to release the energy. A powerful flow of white light, ran against Vespiquen in hi-speed motion.

Vespiquen looked up, its match seemed closed.

Once the light had disappeared, Aaron noticed his Vespiquen wasn't there anymore. How? Could the power of that Hyper Beam be so strong that it had killed his precious pokèmon?

The bug trainer looked around him: it wasn't possible, it couldn't be possible!

He felt his eyes filled with tears…what did he just do? It was all his fault and his stupid Idea to become a league champion, why he didn't he just stayed with the idea of being a bug collector?

"Damned you Koga! Was it necessary to make the _Hyper Beam_ so powerful?"

"My _hyper beam_ wasn't any extra powerful, it was normal, it's your pokèmon the one who needs to grow stronger!"

The referee went on his job, lifting the flag up to Aaron, when the arm was about to be fully stretched, from the leaves of a tree, Vespiquen peeked out, still alive and fully powered "Vespiquen! You're here! Great thing dude!"

Koga's eyes opened wide, how was it possible? He was sure the hit was enough to defeat the enemy, and now he found his Toxicroak with an heavy breathe, and what's worse was that his opposites were both enraged.

Aaron jumped on a nearby rock holding his index finger up "That's alright Vespiquen: let's show him what we're made of: use _aerial ace!_"

With a sharp cry, Vespiquen lifted up to the ceiling and flew against the enemy, who before flinched then fell back.

The red flag was for Koga, who hung his head and muttered under his breath "You've proven your worth."

Vespiquen flew back into his trainer's arms, who hugged and jumped happily with it.

Once Aaron was done with healing his pokèmon, Koga made him sign to move towards the door, seeing the young and victorious man walking past him, he could feel a little displeased for how he could have been stupid just to lose against a so young guy

Aaron put a hand on his opponent's shoulder "Hey, cheer up a little, it's not the end of the world, isn't it? If it makes you feel better I can wait until tomorrow to challenge Bruno"

Liar.

Koga shook his head, immediately regaining his composure "I subjected you to everything I could muster. But my efforts failed. I must hone my skills. Go on to the next room, and put your abilities to the test!"

As he saw the bug trainer disappear into the stairs, Koga felt a presence behind him, it was Will in a track suit who wore a ear to ear grin "So, are you _confused _about what just happened?" he teased

"Shut the hell up Will!"

"Come on, don't let your blood be so _poisoned_. It's just a defeat!"

"Do you wanna die today?"

"You don't need to be this upset, the next time you'll _sleep _less during a battle!"

That's what all the poison master needed to punch his colleague on the nape "Hey! Don't be so _acid_, there's no need!"

All the ninja had to do was to twirl and glare at the poor Will, who just nodded and ran through the stairs, he grew curious of seeing Aaron's battles. Imaging how Jotho would have been with him as champion instead of Lance.

*xXxXx*

Aaron entered the fight master's room, in which the temperature was too hot for his tastes, there was lava on the sides of the stone corridor that boiled, and even if there was some kind of heat resistant glass to prevent either pokèmon and humans to fall in, the temperature was still unbearable.

Bruno was sitting like meditating, all he did was tilting his head up at the sight of the green haired boy coming closer. There was a stone near him, Aaron noticed it because it was the only one in the room.

He walked closer stretching his hand towards the third Elite, who just stood and greet him like people in martial arts do before a match, unsure of that, Aaron did it the same.

Dammit that man was so tall and well muscled! Except from this, he inspired the younger trainer a certain sense of genuine stupidity.

Meanwhile, outside the room, Will and Koga were spying the match.

"Good morning, my name's Aaron from Jotho."

The fighting master straightened up, speaking with a deep voice "I am Bruno of the Elite Four, I always train to the extreme because I believe in our potential. That is how we became strong. Can you withstand our power?"

Aaron gave him an annoyed look, all this speeches were hitting his nerves

"Hm? I see no fear in you. You look determined, perfect for battle."

"_You don't say. I believed I was here to deliver a pizza with double cheese and ham!"_

The bug master thought, almost laughing to his idea, while the other kept on with his kind of lecture

"Ready, _Arnold_?"

"_Who is he talking to?" _

The Elite turned towards the stone and put his arms around it "You will bow down to our overwhelming power! Ho-ah!"

With the last cry he lifted the stone up and made it hurt against the wall, and the object fell in thousand pieces.

From the outside Will face palmed himself "Luckily both me and you stop trainers from getting to him! think about how many times we'd need to rebuild this damned room!"

"Shut up Will, they're starting!"

The challenge with Bruno was faster than he expected. Maybe it was because he and Koga had pokèmon almost resistant one to another, and all the question of confusion, sleep and poison…

He was advantaged with the fight master because almost all his pokèmon knew either a psychic or a flying move. He easily defeated either hitmontop, and Machamp with his Beautifly (Even if with the last one he had more troubles, the pokèmon had taken the hits from rock attacks the opponent used.).

Lucario was defeated by Heracross, who was both fast and knew either ground, fire and fighting moves.

Onyx bothered Drapion a little with its _earthquake_ but in the end, insisting on using _ice fang_, Aaron succeeded to put it K.O. as well.

Then it was Hitmonchan's turn. Bruno sent it out, inciting his pokèmon "We're standing firm!"

"That's what you said! Go Yanmega!"

The pokèmon buzzed threatening in front of his enemy, who held its position

"Hitmonchan, use _fire punch_!"

The fighting pokèmon ran, a ball of fire forming on the top of his glove "Yanmega, hurry up and void it!"

The pokèmon lifted up, and the other just burned a part of the wall. "Now use _aerial ace_!"

"Hitmonchan, go and use ice punch before it could hurt you!"

Both the monsters collided, dropping back in opposite directions.

Bruno was over Hitmonchan "Come on! Stand up and use _thunder punch _now!"

"Yanmega, _double team_! Quickly!"

Dozens of Yanmega's holograms circled the poor Hitmonchan that punched randomly at the immaterial figures, and was always more confused as they disappeared

"Now, Yanmega! Time to use _Air slash _and finish it!"

All the figures moved at the same time, but the foe didn't see the real one attacking from the back, the hit was so violent to put Hitmonchan K.O.

Bruno stared incredulous at the jumping boy in front of him, even if he was thinner and less muscled he just gave him a good lesson, or at least one he wouldn't forget so easily.

"Why? How could we lose?"

Aaron turned towards the defeated with a questioning look, still making his Beautifly drink the hyper potion.

"What did you just say? Beautifly just spilled the potion.."

Bruno moved towards him, kneeling down as in sign of respect

"Having lost, I have no right to say anything…Go face your next challenge"

*xXxXx*

On the fact of furnishing tastes, Karen was the best. Entering in her room was like walking over a starry night sky, what he couldn't explain were the huge curtains from where a strange smell came out, it was something like incense, and he could swear there was smoke coming out as well. He hoped he was mistaken, but there was someone smoking weed behind.

Aaron got closer to examine if there was Karen behind. And there she was, smoking what she defined a longer cigarette. Like Aaron was stupid and had never seen neither tasted any. He visited the most infamous places in the world and now he was supposed to get impressed by a stupid joint?

Anyway, he was lucky that his opponent hadn't overdo with it, and she was lucid enough to have a good fight.

She stretched her hand out "I am Karen of the Elite Four. You're Aaron? How amusing!"

"Hey, what the hell is amusing with my name? You should check the stuff you smoke!" he glared at her, and Karen just put the index finger in front of her lips "Sst…the boss could be hearing…" she whispered, before regaining composure and start talking again "I love dark-type pokèmon. I'm known for my overpowering tactics."

"_And your hobby of gardening miracle plants…" _

"Think you can take them?"

Aaron face palmed himself for the thousandth time that day, the other didn't even bother to notice.

"Just try to entertain me, let's go!"

"_Arceus saves us all! We're starting!" _

Aaron thought that Karen's pokèmon could have been out of shape, as she didn't have any fights lately. And so it was from some of them, even if the fight which saw Absol against Vespiquen, resulted with them both faint to the ground, then Karen's Houndoom defeated Heracross, but was knocked out by Drapion.

"You're strong to be a Newbie!" observed Karen

"The fact that I haven't already defeated you doesn't make me a newbie!"

The dark master smirked taking out another pokèball and letting Spiritomb out.

That hurt, the damned pokèmon was weak to nothing, how on earth could she manage to keep a pokèmon of the like? The worst thing was that he had to preserve _ice fang _ to fight Lance's dragons, he needed to use the move _crunch_, who didn't reveal to be so useful. Spiritomb's answer came with a _dark pulse_.

Due to the great resistance of both these pokèmon, this match lasted longer and in the end, Spiritomb fainted.

The following turns saw Yanmega against Vileplume and Drapion against Umbreon. The last was another draw match, but Karen was the one who ran out of pokèmon, so the winner was proclaimed to be Aaron.

As a person who cannot bear to lose, Karen fell on her forth, trying to restrain back the tears.

Worried for her estate, Aaron knelt down and tried to peek behind the long silver locks "Are you having a sugar loss?"

She slowly shook her head, she needed to say him the usual stuff like, "Go on, the champion is waiting…." But all she managed to do was to burst out of the door screaming "I can't have lost!", leaving a puzzled Aaron alone in the middle of the arena.

*xXxXx*

Hearing the sharp cries coming, Will had already prepared his mate some joint to smoke just to calm down a little.

The whole Elite Four members were in the relaxing room discussing about the recent losses, and bets on Lance or Aaron were open.

"I bet my brand new laptop on Aaron!" affirmed Will, Karen gave him a questioning look "Your _new_ laptop? You bought it five years ago!"

"Age's just a number."

"Anyway, I don't believe Aaron could succeed it. Remember that Lance has a Salamence and a Grachomp in his team, his poor bug pokèmon would be defeated as soon as he steps in!" spitted Koga

"You're not completely wrong. He travelled all over the World, why not just go and challenge Steven nail brain Stone?" joked Will

"He did it well. I trust him, my Hitmonchan was never defeated by anyone before"

*xXxXx*

The passage before the champion room seemed infinite: a long corridor covered in a red carpet with golden statues of Dratini on both the sides, at the very end of this, stood the final arena. Lance was there, standing still, his cape pending on his sides, looking straight forward, intimidating.

"I've been waiting for you…"

Aaron held his hands up "Please, not to be rude, but I've had enough of all this speeches, can we please skip all the lecture and go straight to the battle?"

Lance was taken aback, he wasn't upset though, being a closed person for nature, the less he talked the better he felt.

The two challengers positioned on the battlefield. The referee was excited too. He hadn't seen Lance fighting since he was employed there…six years to be exact.

Lance threw his pokèball in the air, in a brilliant flash of light, a red Gyarados appeared. Aaron was mesmerized by this unusual and gorgeous view, he decided to leave Drapion for later, Heracross would have done its job brilliantly for now.

"Alright, now you will experience the true power of the Dragon Tamer: Gyarados, use _Ice Beam_!"

"Heracross, avoid it!"

But it was too late, even if for the dimension, it could appear that Gyarados was slower, Aaron discovered on his damage that it was way faster than his poor Heracross, who was thrown against the wall

"Heracross! Stand up and use _Rock Throw_!"

Stupid move, the Gyarados took the hit almost without any damage

"Think over what you're doing. Don't be so impulsive. Reflect better!" advised Lance, then the dragon tamer turned his attention to the now attacked pokèmon "Giarados, use _dragon breath_!"

"Heracross, _detect_!"

As Gyarados released a trail of fire sparks, the bug type pokèmon quickly avoided it, but as soon as the first attack ended, Lance was already ordering his Gyarados to use _ice beam _again.

Seeing the mendacious freezing ray getting closer to Heracross, Aaron panicked "Use_ dig_!" and the pokèmon disappeared under the ground just few inches before the ray could hit it.

"This was pretty smart" was Lance's comment on the move, before ordering Gyarados to use _ice beam_ directly in the hole dug by Heracross. The bug pokèmon jumped out of the ground, now almost exhausted. Seeing there was no hope left for the poor Heracross, Aaron decided to attempt at least leave a mark on the opponent "Heracross, use _toxic_ now!" with one last struggle, the pokèmon put his weight back on two legs, releasing a toxic jet that hit Gyarados on the eyes.

Heracross fainted and Gyarados started to feel the poisoning symptoms, it squirmed always more frequently, it was so badly injured that Lance decided to call it back, letting his Altaria out. Lance's choice made his own difficult. Drapion could have had a great defense and attack, but his speed was way too low from Altaria's. Vespiquen and Beautifly would have fainted in the first few minutes. Yanmega was weak to flying types. It left just one out, a pokèmon he didn't use against the elites because he needed to keep just five pokèmon.

It was Scizor's moment.

The red pokèmon shone in the artificial light like it was a ruby.

"Scizor, jump and use _iron head_!" just as it was doing so, Altaria avoided the attack, responding with a _dragon pulse_. Scizor put his claws up in front of his head as a shield and it achieved to resist all the attack long.

Lance smirked, it wasn't so often that Altaria had troubles with an opponent.

The dragon pokèmon blinked uncertainly, but Lance stood his ground, commanding it for a _fire blast_. A a circle of flames converged into Altaria's mouth, Aaron had just few seconds to think, a hit of the like would have meant Scizor's immediate defeat .

"Use _razor wind _and try to push it back!"

Both pokèmon struggled for a long time, each one pushing his attack forward, until, with one last effort, Scizor succeeded to push the _fire blast _back to his owner, who, due to the added power of the _razor wind_ fell on the ground. The referee counted, but Altaria wouldn't wake up. This match was Aaron's. And he didn't miss to notice he was advantaged now. They both had five pokèmon left, but the champion's Gyarados was badly poisoned while Scizor seemed to be still in good health.

Outside the battlefield door, Will squeaked "It's impossible! That fuckin' feather cloud it's invincible!"

"It doesn't seem so." Debated Koga "But Lance hasn't sent out the strong pieces of his team yet. I mean, look at Scizor, I don't think it could do the same number with Salamence, Grachomp, and, above all, Dragonite."

"He doesn't have just a Scizor, there's that Drapion that seems indestructible" spitted Karen, still enraged for her loss.

As Koga predicted, Scizor couldn't take the challenge against Salamence. It responded well, avoiding the _dragon rage_ the first time, but when it came to the _flamethrower_, the bug pokèmon was too tired to push it back, even if it seemed to be came out of the fight with Altaria well, the poor Scizor suffered from the struggle against a fire move.

Aaron breathed, he still had four pokèmon left, nothing was said, he could still do it. He opted for weakening the foe and then finish it with Drapion.

The next on the list to face Salamence was Yanmega, he could always count on the speed.

Actually this decision revealed itself to be meaningless, even though Yanmega was fast, Salamence was far better experienced and had attack and defense on its side either.

It took almost no time to knock both Beautifly, Yanmega and Vespiquen out.

In the end Aaron was left with only Drapion.

"It's a pity you ruined yourself with the choice of a series of wrong moves" the dragon tamer turned the attention back to his pokèmon "Salamence, hit it with _dragon claw!_"

"Drapion, use _ice fang _and stop the offence!"

Drapion bit on Salamence's paw, causing the limb to get half froze, the dragon pokèmon let out a sharp cry, its weakness playing ugly tricks "Salamence, use _flamethrower_ and get rid of the grip" as the dragon spit the fire out Aaron hurried to change his commands "Drapion, avoid it, use _ice fang_ on each limb, quickly!"

The bug pokèmon shifted its weight to avoid the attack and hit at another limb. Drapion was attacked so thigh that Lance was becoming worried "Salamence: _fly"_

"Hold on Drapion! Use _pin missile_ and change its direction"

Drapion with a struggle lifted his tail up and a series of poisoned pins hit Salamence's head, making the dragon pokèmon blink in the air

"Salamence, attack back with _dragon rage_, get rid of it!"

Still floating in the air, Salamence shot a powerful attack to the heavy weight on his back, who just didn't stop hitting with the flow of pins, intensifying it instead. Both the monsters fell down in a kind of an implosion: a strong light and a wave of heat spread in the atmosphere. The power of the event made both Lance and Aaron fall backwards.

Outside the door, the four elites gasped and entered in to check on their mates.

When the last crumbs of dust were dissipated, the vision of Drapion and Salamence fainted on the ground made it clear that the battle between those two was draw, but that Lance was still the champion as Aaron ran out of pokèmon.

Lance stepped forward stretching his hand to the defeated boy "Congratulations, you did it well. Just, don't be carried away by the thought of winning, you played this last round almost perfectly, you should have started thinking this way before."

Aaron shrugged "Well, hearing these things from you it's quite encouraging. But, I guess I should continue my trip on being a bug pokèmon collector." He put the pokèballs back in his pack, greeted everyone and left "I shall head to the pokèmon center, me and those guys need a rest"

*xXxXx*

Aaron sat on the bar stool, in front of him there was a plate full of several sweets and a cup with ginseng coffee. Around him, all his pokèmon were eating as well.

Beautifly tugged on its master's head "What? Do you want a sweet?"

The pokèmon took the last doughnut from the plate, Aaron tried to get a hold of the pastry, without any success "Hey, you mean! That's the last one!" the pokèmon happily sucked on the pink sugar coverage "You're terrible! You owe me, remember!"

"Truth to be told, it's me the one who owes you something"

Aaron turned back to the now familiar voice, Will stood there, not wearing his classic dress anymore and got closer to him "Hey Will. What are you doing here?"

The lilac haired man sat beside the bug trainer "Well, we haven't had so many trainers lately, you know."

"I see…"

The psychic master asked the waitress for his usual and she came back with some short coffee and a ashtray, he took a cigarette out and lightened it. He usually would have gone outside, but since that there were just him and Aaron and that Lance wasn't going to give attention at the bar, he just did it.

Will looked directly into Aaron's eyes, the bug master didn't miss to notice that he was blind on the left eye.

"Listen you. First of all, I apologize for the shitty behavior my nazi chief just had."

Aaron blinked "Shitty behavior?"

"Yes, he made you some compliments, but treated you exactly as you were defeated by a wild Rattata, if you know what I mean"

"I don't actually care that much, it was jus—" Will hushed him

"Listen to me. I truly enjoyed your battle style, may I be allowed to show the videos to some of my acquaintances overseas?"

Aaron blinked "A..alright, I don't think there's a problem with this"

"That's fantastic. It's a waste to let you go unrewarded! Now, I'm sorry but I'm busy. Don't let your hopes down!"

The psychic master fled through the main hall, like he just won something, Aaron couldn't help but smile "Strange guy"

*xXxXx*

Two months passed, Aaron decided to move back to Azalea Town and work hard to become a bug collector, helped by his friend Bugsy.

One morning, he was having breakfast with Bugsy when his father came in holding an envelope "Aaron, this is for you. The sender wrote the address by hand and I can't read his name"

"Maybe it's the invitation to Whitney's monthly party"

Bugsy nodded "Oh, yes, she sent me one invitation three days ago"

"Have you checked the date and location?"

"I can't remember. Open and read, we can go together"

Aaron careless ripped the envelope, taking out a piece of light yellow paper

"Strange, I remember mine to be blue"

"Women"

Aaron read the lines, excitement in his eyes "Aaron? Aaron? Are you ok? Did she asked you for something peculiar?"

The bug master jumped, pulling his friend upstairs "Wh..what…is it going on tonight?"

But Aaron wouldn't listen, once in his bedroom he filled a luggage with his clothes "Aaron, what get into you?"

"Screw Whitney and her boring parties! Man, I'm moving to Sinnoh!"

The poor Bugsy was confused more than ever "Why? Now?"

The green haired boy twirled smirking with importance "Bugsy, the boy you see in front of you isn't any kind of trainer anymore. It's just evolved into an Elite Four"


End file.
